Preface+2008

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Keeper of the Pen by Shirley Crosby Keeper of the pen hold what we write filling your page with our words of delight inspiring satires various poems stories of family memories of home. Hold there our thoughts don’t let them stray save them to comfort on a dark dreary day

Preface for 2008 Anthology

Preface

The writings in this anthology are the creative expressions of the teacher participants, teacher consultants and instructors attending a summer writing institute sponsored by the South Central Kansas Writing Project (SCKWP) located at Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas. This local site is one of nearly 200 sites located at universities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U. S. Virgin Islands. Each university site partners with local schools to improve the teaching of writing and to develop teachers as writers themselves, which in turn improves student writing and learning in general across the curriculum and at all school levels. The 2008 SCKWP Summer Institute was held at Wichita State University's West Campus in Maize, KS.

The umbrella organization that provides funding, direction, structure, management, and encouragement for all of the nearly 200 sites is the National Writing Project (NWP), which is a grant program of the Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) of the U. S. Department of Education. OII makes strategic investments in innovative educational practices and is responsible for coordinating those provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that address public school choice and supplemental educational services.

The NWP is the premier effort to improve writing and the teaching of writing in the United States of America, and it supports the that every child deserves a highly skilled teacher of writing. NWP Summer Institutes help teachers in prepare for leadership roles by demonstrating their most effective practices studying research, and improving their knowledge of writing by writing themselves. Additionally, through its professional development model, NWP builds the leadership, programs, and research needed for teachers to help their students become successful writers and learners. Summer institutes, advanced seminars, writing marathons, young writers camps, and professional development are some of the services offered by local sites to accomplish these goals.

The summer institute sponsored by Wichita State University’s South Central Kansas Writing Project is an intense immersion into the production of personal writing expression, the study of writing development, and the acquisition of ideas for teaching writing, K-12. This anthology, //Keeper of the Pen//, completes the writing process sequence by publishing some of the creative written expressions of a group of Kansas teacher/writers.

Read and enjoy!

Steve Maack, SCKWP Site Coordinator Nancy Sturm, SCKWP Assistant Site Coordinator